INTRODUCTION: EUROPEAN ARCHITECTURE by Vanbrugh, Hawksmoor, Gibbs, Chambers, and Robert Adam. Later there was a movement throughout Europe towards closer adherence to classical buildings, especially those of Greece. But more of that later. At the time when the precepts of Vitruvius were being disseminated by the writings of Palladio, Vignola, and Serlio a reaction to this rigid formalism set in, led by Borromini and Bernini. Fortified by the magnificent freedom and daring of Michelangelo they rebelled against subservience to rules, contending that it destroyed originality and individual expression. Their work was an exemplification of their contentions, work that has come to be known as baroque. This movement, beginning in Rome, likewise spread throughout Europe, and existed very often side by side with the more restrained classical work. Many architects, like our Christopher Wren, constantly move between classicism and baroque. Greenwich Hospital, with the theme set by Inigo Jones's Queen's House, is essentially classical; but St. Paul's Cathedral, and many of Wren's towers and spires, have much of baroque freedom and originality. The close adherence to Roman forms and ornament on the one hand and a departure to baroque freedom on the other are symptomatic of the classical and romantic spirits which seem to persist in various forms in most cultures. This classical1 spirit seeks for universal principles and laws, and the establishment of ideal fixed forms as guides and aims in artistic creations, with a strong preference for precision and definition; whereas the romantic spirit moves towards freedom of individual expression and the emphasis of individual character, with a strong preference for things remote and mysterious. Classical and romantic are often further explained by the broad oppositions of objective and subjective, and impersonal and personal. The objective and impersonal are more concerned with generalities, types, ideals, and standards, and expression that will satisfy an approximation to an imagined standard of humanity. The subjective and personal are more concerned with the expression of purely individual emotion and with personal adventure and experience, so that a subject is often transformed and given a particular character by the personal feeling of the artist. Renaissance architecture based on the precepts of Vitruvius and his 1 It is obvious that when I speak of classical in this connection I do not mean the actual classical art of Greece, which was produced just as romantically as the most modern romantic art, but the tradition and authority of classical art; and when I speak of the classical spirit, artist, or architect I mean the spirit that follows the classical tradition, and bows to its authority, an authority which I admit is very powerful because of its high excellence. It is really the habit of mind that follows authority and standards. 21